The process of installing software retrieved from a remote server system accessible via the Internet is generally clumsy, inefficient, and difficult. When a user desires to install selected components or programs of a particular software package available from a remote server source, he typically must download an entire installation package, either as a single large compressed file, or as multiple floppy disk "images". Most likely, the installation package includes not only those components and options that the user will ultimately install on his target machine, but may components and options which will be discarded. The user must then "unpack" the compressed file into a multitude of smaller files, which may include an installer program and uninstalled program files. This process often involves double-clicking on a self-extracting executable which contains batch commands for PKUNZIP or a similar decompression utility, and automatic startup for the installer program. In certain instances, the user must manually execute the individual decompression and install steps. The installer program, which is typically unpacked into an identified file directory, is normally named either "setup.exe" or "install.exe".
The standard installation process heretofore described is highly efficient if all of the components within the downloaded installation package are installed on the target system. However, efficiency is directly related to the percentage of delivered components actually installed on the target system. If only one of many delivered components is installed, then the standard installation process is highly inefficient. Consider the case of an application suite. A suite may be generally characterized as a set of related applications (components), each component often having many installation options, which may include selectable features and data templates. It is not unusual for multiple applications to require access to shared files stored in a common directory. If the entire suite is downloaded as a single installation package, but only some of the downloaded applications are subsequently installed on the target client system, a great deal of the transmitted data is wasted. Likewise, if individual components of a software suite are downloaded, the download may be based on a static installation package for each component. In such a case, common files (i.e., those files shared by different components of a software suite) are often transmitted redundantly with the static installation package for each component. Transmittal of more than one copy of common files to the user wastes network bandwidth and increases download and installation times. In addition, any options associated with each component that are not implemented by the user also represents waste. Where static installation packages are employed for individual software components, each static package must be tested for functionality with each software update.
Inefficiency in software package transmission heretofore described arises primarily because integration of the components into the target environment is done on the client machine, after the data has already been transmitted and unpacked. There is generally little that can be done to prune away unwanted and redundant files and data prior to downloading a large software package. This inefficiency is so onerous, particularly in dial-up Internet environments, that users may simply choose not to acquire a non-trivial application package using that medium. What is needed is a new method of software distribution that eliminates the requirement that unwanted and/or redundant data be transmitted to a client machine if only a portion of the available software components are to be installed thereon.
A slightly different approach to software installation is taken for intra-company networks. Installation programs have been developed specifically for that use. Typically, such a program is installed by a network administrator as an application on a shared disk drive. The network install program can generally be launched from any client machine on the network, but almost always will run under only one particular operating system. For instance, an installer for Windows NT can be stored on a Unix file system, but it must be launched on a client machine which has Windows NT loaded on Intel-compatible hardware before any installation options may be selected. Operation of traditional network installer programs is limited to a common subnet. They must therefore be installed on a shared drive inside the user Internet firewall. This means that network installation cannot generally be accomplished directly between the networks of two different companies. Network installation packages generally provide every option for every type of installation that one may wish to perform on the enterprise network. The installation package therefore contains a full set of application components and options although some of those applications and/or options are rarely, if ever, used. Whenever a new version of the software is released by the vendor, the network administrator must reinstall the installer program on the network.
One current approach to downloading software from the Internet requires the installation of an application program on a client or server machine of a local network. Once installation is complete, the program facilitates downloads from compatible web sites. An example of such a program is "Fresh Bits" from the company InstallShield. The program, which can be loaded from a CDROM or from the Internet, does not run in a web browser. Thus, it could not be operated from a browser such as Netscape running under a Unix-type operating system. With "Fresh Bits", the custom configuration of a downloaded software package or suite occurs at the client level. Thus, when a user wants to install only a subset of a particular software package or suite, much unneeded and redundant data must be transmitted over the Internet to the client machine.
What is needed is a new method for installing software from a distributed processing network such as the Internet which will allow the installation of a subset of a suite without having to download unnecessary components and data.